This article contains spoilers for Extraction…
Is Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) dead or alive? That’s probably a question that ran through your mind when you watched Netflix’s action flick, Extraction. The climax of the film sees Tyler mortally wounded in an effort to save the little kid, Ovi. It’s a dark ending that many did not see coming, especially considering the star power of the lead actor.
However, the final moments of the film do offer a sense of hope. We see Ovi jump into a swimming pool in a scene that reflects Tyler’s opening sequence. And when Ovi resurfaces from under the water, there is a figure standing in the background — a figure that looks awfully like Tyler Rake. But what does that mean? Is Tyler really alive or is that just a metaphor?
Collider sat down with Extraction director Sam Hargrave to get to the bottom of this. The director revealed that writer Joe Russo’s original idea was to be very explicit with Tyler’s death. However, test audiences were split down the middle. Some loved it, while many others didn’t.
“We had a version of the movie, and we tested it a lot, and it was not surprising that a lot of people wanted the character to live, and some people wanted him to die. People were torn; it was almost down the middle. We want to appeal to as many people as possible without compromising the integrity of the story. And so, we think a pretty good compromise is to make an ambiguous ending.
If people, on one hand, feel like the story is complete and is a story of redemption through sacrifice, then for them, it’ll be where the kid is imagining [Rake standing there], and then now you go, ‘Yes, I’m satisfied.’ If you feel like you love Tyler Rake, and you love Chris Hemsworth, and you want a sequel, and you’re like ‘There’s no way, you can’t kill him!’ then that’s Tyler Rake standing there looking at you. So we kind of purposefully did not pull focus to the character standing there.”
However, when asked which ending the director himself prefers, Hargrave said that he prefers the original idea.
“In truth, that was a thing of testing. Because we shot multiple endings. We shot a lot of different ways to pull this off. Because in the original script—and this was my idea—Rake does not live. His story was complete because he found something to keep him alive, and his journey was complete when he came to redemption through sacrifice. He made the choice he was okay with. He had come to terms with his past and the choice he made in the present saved this kid, and if that meant him dying, so be it. And that was his journey in my mind.”
Alas, even Netflix executive Scott Stuber suggested that Tyler should live, as it’s a far more emotionally satisfying ending, and so the ending that we actually get in the final product is a compromise of both ideas. I don’t quite agree with Stuber. Tyler dying isn’t just a shocking ending, it’s one that makes sense given the character’s arc (From the very first frame, Tyler is established as someone who’s longing for death due to his past experiences) and far more emotionally satisfying.
Extraction is currently streaming on Netflix.
